should look at the architecture of this work
as a whole, for it is so well executed and joined together in its small
proportions that it appears to have been chiselled out of one single
stone. Much extolled, also, is a large Pieta of marble that he made in
half-relief on the front of the altar, with the Madonna and S. John
weeping. Nor could one imagine any more beautiful pieces of casting than
are the bronze gratings that enclose that chapel, with their ornaments
of marble, and with stags, the device, or rather the arms, of the
Corbinelli, which serve as adornments for the bronze candelabra. In
short, this work was executed without any sparing of labour, and with
all the best considerations that could possibly be imagined.

By these and by other works the name of Andrea spread far and wide, and
he was sought for from the elder Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent, in
whose garden, as has been related, he had pursued the studies of design,
by the King of Portugal; and, being therefore sent to him by Lorenzo, he
executed for that King many works of sculpture and of architecture, and
in particular a very beautiful palace with four towers, and many other
buildings. Part of the palace was painted after designs and cartoons by
the hand of Andrea, who drew very well, as may be seen from some
drawings by his own hand in our book, finished with a charcoal-point,
and some other architectural drawings, showing excellent design. He also
made for that King a carved altar of wood, containing some Prophets; and
likewise a very beautiful battle-piece in clay, to be afterwards carved
in marble, representing the wars that the King waged with the Moors, who
were vanquished by him; and no work by the hand of Andrea was ever seen
that was more spirited or more terrible than this, what with the
movements and various attitudes of the horses, the heaps of dead, and
the vehement fury of the soldiers in combat. And he made a figure of S.
Mark in marble, which was a very rare work. While in the service of that
King, Andrea also gave his attention to some difficult and fantastic
architectural works, according to the custom of that country, in order
to please the King; of which things I once saw a book at Monte Sansovino
in the possession of his heirs, which is now in the hands of Maestro
Girolamo Lombardo, who was his disciple, and to whom it fell, as will be
related, to finish some works begun by Andrea.

[Illustration: TOMB OF CARDINAL ASCANIO